Stricter Checks of U.S. Passports Produce Long Lines at Kennedy

By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: June 15, 1991

As the peak summer season approaches, many international travelers passing through Kennedy International Airport at busy weekend arrival times are enduring long delays clearing immigration because of strict new inspection policies.

The waits stem from the immigration service's decision to reinstitute its screening of United States citizens. Until January, they had been allowed to bypass immigration and move directly to customs.

Now, American citizens arriving at Kennedy wait an average of 20 to 30 minutes to clear immigration, airport officials say; largely because of more exacting screening, foreigners wait about twice as long. And on weekend afternoons, when arrivals peak, the waits are often more than doubled.

Ron Wexler, a quality-control analyst for an electronics company, travels between New York and Rome at least once a month. Although he spent only about 10 minutes in line in the immigration hall at the International Arrivals Building yesterday afternoon, he said that on his last two trips, he spent about 40 minutes waiting.

"I don't think this is a good policy because it takes much longer, and most of the waiting is just standing around in line," he said. "It doesn't take long for them to look at your passport once you get up there."

Warning of even longer delays with the arrival of summer, customs and airport officials are demanding that the Immigration and Naturalization Service abandon screening every passenger's passport until the service can install computer technology to clear arriving travelers en route. Faster System Starts Next Week

"We are anticipating a disaster situation, with people waiting out on planes because the immigration area is so congested," said David Z. Plavin, director of aviation for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Kennedy.

The problems have not been confined to Kennedy. Immigration officials began tougher screening at other international gates in 1989, and long waits have been reported in Los Angeles, Honolulu and other cities.

On Thursday, in the face of criticism across the nation, the immigration service said it was taking steps to ease the crush.

Starting next week, the immigration authorities at international airports will be allowed to use a faster modified examination process during heavy arrival times, said Verne Jervis, a spokesman for the service. Instead of clearing every arriving United States citizen's name through a computer, inspectors will make selective checks, like checking only the names of family heads or every fourth person. Mr. Jervis said the specifics will be left to the port directors.

But Port Authority officials say they are skeptical that the change will insure that all passengers clear all checks within 45 minutes, as recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization. "If this does that, we'll support it," said Armando Arrastia, a spokesman for the Port Authority.

The mathematics of the problem are simple: Many more passports are being examined by the same number of inspectors. At Kennedy, half of the 52 immigration booths are now devoted solely to inspecting the passports of American citizens.

And passengers often must wait outside in the corridors before they can wait in the immigration line itself. As Long as 52 Minutes

"On one unseasonably warm day in early April, with the air-conditioning system not yet operative, we held passengers from 10 flights for as long as 52 minutes" in the corridors, Mr. Plavin told members of the House immigration subcommittee during a hearing last month.

The immigration service says it began the stricter screenings because the Customs Service was not thorough enough in checking United States citizens; its inspectors were looking only selectively at passports instead of checking each.

"When we started surveying people to find out what citizens were being inspected, we found that only 10 percent were being checked by customs," said Duke Austin, a spokesman for the immigration service. "Customs said they couldn't do 100 percent, but the law requires that all persons entering the country be checked."

The Customs Service, which checks for drugs and other illegal imports and collects duties on goods bought abroad, insists that its selective screening works both for detecting contraband and people without legitimate passports. 70 Percent More Cocaine

The screening identifies potential drug smugglers, terrorists and other criminals based on certain indicators, like whether the reasons for a passenger's visit match its duration. Michael Lovejoy, the service's program manager for air-sea passenger operations, said that using this system, the Customs Service confiscated 70 percent more cocaine and 40 percent more heroin in 1990 than in 1989.

Port Authority officials described the squabbling between immigration and customs as finger-pointing that obscured immigration's failure to hire a full contingent of inspectors to meet its increased requirements.

Kennedy rarely has its full contingent of 342 inspectors because, immigration officials have said, the agency lacks the money. But even though a $5 fee levied on passengers entering the country was extended last year to travelers from Mexico, the Caribbean and Canada to finance more inspectors, 68 positions were vacant yesterday.

The immigration service said it planned to add 32 more inspectors on Monday. Technology to the Rescue

Airport officials expect technology to solve the problem eventually. Some airlines already use a system on flights from Japan and Europe called the Advanced Passenger Information Program. It electronically transfers data on arriving passengers to the immigration service while the passengers are en route. Immigration officials run the information through computers so that when passengers land, they have already cleared inspection.

At Kennedy yesterday, the stream of American citizens moved fairly steadily. But the line for foreign citizens moved much more slowly, and foreigners arriving on two jumbo jets around 3 P.M. filled the international side of the inspection hall.

Foreign passengers, however, seemed much less agitated by the long lines than their American counterparts. "In Italia, it's the same thing, the waiting," said Giussino D'Alessandro, who arrived on an Alitalia flight from Rome.

"Forty minutes, 45 minutes is not such a long time," said Giovanni Scorpati, who had arrived on the same flight.

They spent about 35 minutes in line before proceeding to Immigration and Naturalization Service inspectors.

Photo: Strict new inspection policies are causing long delays for international travelers who try to clear immigration at Kennedy International Airport during busy arrival times. (William E. Sauro/The New York Times)